Strange problem with ipw3945 and Slackware 12.0

Nuck · 09-04-2007, 11:50 AM

Hello, I'm new with Slackware.

I tried to install ipw3945 drivers with these instructions:
http://absinthesyringe.blogspot.com/...0-ipw3945.html

and it loads module and light starts blinking. OK, I inserted ESSID and WEP-128 key. Now that light is on and I thought that it work. I opened firefox but it says: Server not found. So I can't connect to the internet.

I remove ieee8012 subsystem completely including symbolic links and forced to make kernel-modules. That was wrong?

And another problem. When I restart computer, it forgets all wlan settings (essid, encryption key...).

So, any suggestions?

Hope you understand what I'm trying to say ;-)

geomatt · 09-04-2007, 03:58 PM

The settings for wlan0 are stored in /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless.conf If you edit that file with yours, they will be loaded automatically on bootup. The blinking light just means that the wireless card is on -- with its driver loaded. Getting it to talk to your network is accomplished by /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 which calls the rc.wireless script and loads entries from the .conf file.

-geo

BTW: welcome to LQ and to Slackware!

onebuck · 09-04-2007, 04:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by geomatt

The settings for wlan0 are stored in /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless.conf If you edit that file with yours, they will be loaded automatically on bootup. The blinking light just means that the wireless card is on -- with its driver loaded. Getting it to talk to your network is accomplished by /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 which calls the rc.wireless script and loads entries from the .conf file.

-geo

BTW: welcome to LQ and to Slackware!

Hi,

The way I like to configure is too use the '/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf' file and fill in the parameters for a specific device. The '/etc/rc.d/rc.wireless.conf' is basically to setup options for a card using '/etc/rc.d/rc.wireless' which is called via the '/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1'.

As for the 'LED', which one? Some have a link plus act LED.

I prefer to use the '/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf' unless I need to setup a range of hardware specifics then I use the '/etc/rc.d/rc.wireless.conf' to set the desired option(s) to allow a change when the device is ejected. Either way is usable.

Quote:

excerpt '/etc/rc.d/rc.wireless';

# Wireless network card setup.
#
# This script sets up PCI, USB, and 32-bit Cardbus wireless devices
# NOT 16-bit PCMCIA cards! Those are configured in /etc/pcmcia/.
# Single parameter to this script is the name of a network interface.
# Normally this script is called from rc.inet1 rather than run
# directly.

excerpt '/etc/rc.d/rc.wireless.conf';

# Wireless LAN adapter configuration
#
# Theory of operation :
#
# The script attempts to match a block of settings to the specific wireless
# card inserted, the *first* block matching the card is used.
# The address format is "hwaddr", with * as a wildcard.
# 'hwaddr' is the unique MAC address identifier of the wireless card.
# The MAC address is usually printed on the card, or can be found via ifconfig.
# Some examples here use only half of the MAC address with a wildcard to
# match a whole family of cards...
#
# All the Wireless specific configuration is done through the Wireless
# Extensions, so we will just call 'iwconfig' with the right parameters
# defined below.

BTW, Too the OP, ditto on the salutations. Welcome to LQ & Slackware

geomatt · 09-04-2007, 05:20 PM

onebuck,
Thanks for the clarification. I was wondering why those settings seemed redundant.
-geo

Nuck · 09-05-2007, 06:42 AM

No luck this far. I made a few changes to /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf and /etc/rc.d/rc.wireless.conf. LED is still blinking (searching for network) and I get two more error messages from inet1.conf. And I can't disable network card graphically anymore.

Do you want some logs etc.?

geomatt · 09-05-2007, 11:36 AM

The output of some commands might help diagnosis and fixing.
What does "ifconfig" show?
What does "iwconfig" show?
Does the driver (ipw3945) show up when you run "lsmod"?

-geo

Nuck · 09-05-2007, 01:06 PM

Quote:

What does "ifconfig" show?

Code:

root@Lassi:~# ifconfig
eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1B:77:04:D4:D0
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:3 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
          Interrupt:16 Base address:0xc000 Memory:edf00000-edf00fff

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:100 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:100 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:8696 (8.4 KiB)  TX bytes:8696 (8.4 KiB)

Quote:

What does "iwconfig" show?

Code:

root@Lassi:~# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

eth1      IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"wee-lani"  Nickname:"Lassi"
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: 00:13:D3:6F:BB:90
          Bit Rate:54 Mb/s   Tx-Power:12 dBm
          Retry limit:15   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:<THERE IS MY KEY>   Security mode:open
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=99/100  Signal level=-23 dBm  Noise level=-24 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:6   Missed beacon:0

Quote:

Does the driver (ipw3945) show up when you run "lsmod"?

Yes.

Code:

root@Lassi:~# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
ieee80211_crypt_wep     8320  1
snd_seq_dummy           6788  0
snd_seq_oss            32896  0
snd_seq_midi_event     10112  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                50640  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device         10508  3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss            42784  0
snd_mixer_oss          18048  1 snd_pcm_oss
ipv6                  254496  14
capability              7304  0
commoncap               9344  1 capability
lp                     13736  0
parport_pc             27812  0
parport                34760  2 lp,parport_pc
pcspkr                  6528  0
psmouse                39048  0
pcmcia                 34988  0
yenta_socket           27148  1
iTCO_wdt               12964  0
ipw3945               198304  1
rsrc_nonstatic         14848  1 yenta_socket
pcmcia_core            36500  3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
iTCO_vendor_support     7172  1 iTCO_wdt
ieee80211              49260  1 ipw3945
ieee80211_crypt         8832  2 ieee80211_crypt_wep,ieee80211
tg3                   107780  0
intel_agp              25116  1
agpgart                31432  1 intel_agp
sg                     30364  0
serio_raw               9220  0
snd_hda_intel          20248  2
snd_hda_codec         209152  1 snd_hda_intel
snd_pcm                72068  4 snd_pcm_oss,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
ata_generic             9220  0
i2c_i801               11408  0
snd_timer              22532  3 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd                    47204  11 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore               9824  1 snd
snd_page_alloc         11528  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
evdev                  11904  2
shpchp                 33172  0

geomatt · 09-05-2007, 01:36 PM

I think that the 3945 wireless card requires the mac80211 module in order to work. Did you install that when you installed the driver? If so, did you do "modprobe mac80211" before loading the ipw3945 module?

-geo

onebuck · 09-05-2007, 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by geomatt

I think that the 3945 wireless card requires the mac80211 module in order to work. Did you install that when you installed the driver? If so, did you do "modprobe mac80211" before loading the ipw3945 module?

-geo

Hi,

The 'OP' has the ieee80211 stack for the kernel. The mac80211 is not stable but experimental as by the note on the Intel web page. You can look at the README for mac80211 to get more information.

edit: you could be mistaking the ieee80211softmac.ko as the module to use. Some of the cards need this module.

geomatt · 09-05-2007, 07:12 PM

Right. The mac80211 is requirement for the other driver for that wireless card: iwl3945. Oh well, just a thought.

-geo

apock627 · 09-06-2007, 07:33 AM

I'm no expert but I have gone through the process of getting this card working manually. Sounds like you're almost there. One last request - what do you get with

# route -n

(run as root)?

onebuck · 09-06-2007, 07:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by geomatt

Right. The mac80211 is requirement for the other driver for that wireless card: iwl3945. Oh well, just a thought.

-geo

Hi,

I'm not saying you were wrong! Just that it looks like the stack is there.
The 'OP' should try to see if the mac80211 would work for the hardware/system.

Quote:

excerpt from mac80211 README
Why?

The network community for the Linux kernel typically has an
approach of focusing purely on the 'tip'. To the average
user that means that bug fixes, patches, and enhancements will
only be available to you if you can upgrade to the latest
development kernel. For some, this is acceptable. For others,
it is not.

This package is created in order to try and provide the user (you)
with fixes and enhancements that affect *just* the wireless
subsystem required for use with your hardware.

As with any software, new changes may introduce new bugs.
Upgrading from one version of the mac80211 subsystem to the
next might regress a problem, or even introduce a new one --
if it does, and you find it, please file a bug at
http://bughost.org under the project 'mac80211'.

Nuck · 09-06-2007, 08:24 AM

Quote:

I think that the 3945 wireless card requires the mac80211 module in order to work. Did you install that when you installed the driver? If so, did you do "modprobe mac80211" before loading the ipw3945 module?

I installed only ieee80211. So, what should I do to install mac80211?

Quote:

I'm no expert but I have gone through the process of getting this card working manually. Sounds like you're almost there. One last request - what do you get with

# route -n

Code:

Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags Metric Ref    Use Iface
127.0.0.0       0.0.0.0         255.0.0.0       U     0      0        0 lo

onebuck · 09-06-2007, 01:37 PM

Hi,

You need to add your gateway to the '/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf'. Do you have the required information for your network in the '/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf' file?

To add manually for a static static IP;

Code:

~#ifconfig eth1 192.168.1.2           #eth1 static IP

~#route add default gw 192.168.0.1    #assume your gateway 
~#ping 192.168.0.1                    #the gateway
~#ping 66.249.93.104                  #google.com IP 
~#ping google.com                     #chk dns (/etc/resolv.conf)

If the pings work then you've got the inet. The first pings the IP for google.com. The second checks the DNS. If you have failure here then your nameserver is not correct for the '/etc/resolv.conf' file.

You can change the data to suit your needs. I would setup using a static IP without security (WEP/WPA)enabled to confirm that the network indeed works.

If the static works then you can change the '/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf' to reflect the static or dhcp. You can then restart the inet with '/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 restart'. Just make sure your network information is in the '/etc/rc.d/rc.inet1.conf'. You could post this file to let us look at it.

Nuck · 09-07-2007, 07:01 AM

Thank you, guys. I got it work!

Now, can you tell me how can I put ipw3945 driver (module?) load before it starts dhcp module? Because now I must always restart rc.inet1 before I can use internet connection.